Debating Tuukka Rask’s legacy right now feels about as pointless as so many of the Rask debates we’ve been having for years.
His biggest fans and his most vocal critics have been entrenched in their positions for years. It’s unlikely anyone has changed their stance this week.
In one corner: Rask holds nearly every Bruins goaltending record, including most career wins and most career playoff wins. He has the fourth-best career save percentage in NHL history and ninth-best playoff save percentage. He won a Vezina Trophy and is one of the best goalies of his generation by virtually every metric. He was excellent for the overwhelming majority of two lengthy playoff runs to the Stanley Cup Final. His teammates loved him and trusted him, and he gave the organization a consistently high level of play at the most important position for a decade.
In the other: Rask never won a Stanley Cup as a starter. He was the goalie when the Bruins blew a 3-0 series lead to the Flyers in 2010, when they collapsed in Game 6 against the Blackhawks in the 2013 Cup Final, and when they no-showed on home ice against the Blues in Game 7 of the 2019 Final. He missed the 2016 regular-season finale due to illness when a playoff spot was on the line, left the playoff bubble in 2020 to deal with a medical emergency involving his daughter, and also missed an Olympic semifinal due to illness.
For years, the thinking has been that the only way anyone in the latter group was going to budge was if Rask actually did win a Cup as a starter. But there’s actually something else that might shrink and soften that group: Time.
“Time heals all wounds” is a cliché, but it’s also often true. While no one can predict the future, the bet here is that it will ultimately be true with Rask as well. It won’t happen all at once. There won’t be any grand proclamations about changed hearts and minds. But slowly, over time, more people will see and remember the bigger-picture positives and let go of the handful of negative talking points. Not all -- some of the hard-liners will remain dug in forever -- but a lot.
We are all too close to the fire right now, everything too fresh. We are also too close to an era of winning unrivaled by any city in the history of North American sports. Six Super Bowls, four World Series, a Stanley Cup and an NBA title in a 20-year span has blinded us. It’s become a black-and-white world where you’re either a champion or a failure, with no in-between.
Eventually, we’ll remember that’s not actually the case. That’s not the standard we held athletes to before the last 10-15 years, and it’s not the one they’ll be held to the further we move away from this golden era. Spoiler: Boston isn’t going to average six championships per decade in the post-Tom Brady era.
Some of Boston’s greatest sports heroes never won a championship here: Ray Bourque, Ted Williams, Carl Yastrzemski, John Hannah. If it’s held against them at all, it’s to a negligible extent that doesn’t even come close to overshadowing the positives.
Counterpoint: Rask isn’t on that same transcendent, all-time great level. OK. There are plenty of non-title winners a tier or three below that who are remembered fondly as well: Cam Neely, Terry O’Reilly, Rick Middleton, Jim Rice, Dwight Evans, Carlton Fisk, Luis Tiant, Andre Tippett.
We don’t remember those guys as losers or chokers. Well, maybe some who want to have a hot take do, but the overwhelming majority of Boston fans don’t. We don’t hyper-analyze their individual performances in the playoffs or championship series or games. We recognize that their teams -- the whole team -- didn’t get the job done in those moments. We remember and appreciate that they were great players.
And, it’s worth a reminder that Rask did actually win a Stanley Cup. His name is on the trophy. He was part of that 2010-11 team and did play 29 games in the regular season. It’s not the same as being the starter, obviously, but it’s also not the exact same as being a backup quarterback who only plays a handful of snaps all season.
Other great goalies of this era didn’t win a Cup either. The Rangers and their fans just gave Henrik Lundqvist an incredible number retirement ceremony. Not winning it all isn’t held against him. Carey Price will always be a legend in Montreal, and that’s a city that did once judge its Canadiens almost exclusively on titles.
Rask had a great career. He will at least be in the conversation for the Hockey Hall of Fame. His No. 40 will probably be retired by the Bruins someday, even if it has to wait until after more surefire candidates like Zdeno Chara and Patrice Bergeron.
Rask will remain part of the Boston and Bruins community, as he said himself in his retirement post. He’ll pop up at the Garden from time to time. He’ll continue to do the numerous charity events he has done his whole career.
The majority of his interactions with fans have always been positive, and will continue to be. The ovations for him at the Garden have been loud, and will get louder in the years to come. The vocal minority of haters will become more of a minority and less vocal in the years and decades to come.
Rask is an all-time Bruins great. That’s never going to change. Perhaps some of the negative opinions about him eventually will.